The next 30
There is no power women waiting in the wings.
She hails from the First Family of recruiting. Her father Bish Agrawal co-founded ABC Consulting and her husband Tarun Bali co-headed Manpower India. But Agrawal is known to have risen up the ranks simply through hard work. At her sought-after executive search firm Accord, Agrawal has helped make top hires at NM Rothschild and Deutsche Bank.
Ambani retains a strong identity outside of just being the wife of the country's richest man. She heads a non-profit organisation, the Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation, and is closely managing the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai. Her investment in IPL team Mumbai Indians has shown her to be a savvy investor, too.
Arjundas joined the group as Vice President, Marketing, Mahindra World City, and played a key role in its success. The sprawling city, spread over 1,550 acres, became the country's first operational special economic zone. Responsible for the business of residential, commercial, and special economic zones, she keeps a tight leash on pricing.
One of the most influential women in media is actually a Masters in Forensic Science. Clearly, that has never been an obstacle - her rise after joining Madison as Media Services Director in 2000 has been meteoric. Currently Group CEO for India, Arumugam has helped Madison grow from a two-client agency to one with over 30 blue chip clients today.
Bajpai joined HBO when the channel launched in India and, over the past ten years, has learnt and grown with it. Promoted to Country Head in 2004, she has pushed HBO to diversify its programming with documentaries and original shows. Credit to her, HBO remains right up there in a market that boasts 350 channels, six DTH players and seven international movie channels.
The petite and pretty Lara is a sharpshooter. She identifies new opportunities for her father Sam Balsara's communications group, Madison World. Under her, Madison inked a 50:50 joint venture with UK ad agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay to launch the latter in India. Madison's advertising business will be merged into the new JV, on whose board Lara has a berth.
The former McKinsey consultant is a member of Spencer Stuart's global board services practice and advises on CEO, senior executive search and governance and succession issues. Bansal has helped hire marquee names like Jeya Kumar, CEO of Patni Computers and Arun Tadanki, MD of Yahoo! India.
Desai took Venky's from a Rs 400-crore poultry brand in 2007, to a Rs 700-crore brand in 2010. Under her stewardship, the company also expanded its footprint outside India, to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. Now, to increase its international visibility, the group is set to buy the English Premier League club Blackburn Rovers.
Saagarika Ghosal, CPO, Reliance BIG Entertainment
Undoubtedly one of the most innovative and result-oriented HR practitioners in the country, this Chief People Officer's impressive working style has helped her reach the top of the corporate ladder in a career spanning over 20 years. In the past, she has worked with diverse companies such as Jet Airways, RPG and Bharti Airtel, before joining the flagship media and entertainment arm of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.
One of only two Indian women to have made it to the Forbes annual list of ten billionaire heiresses to watch for this year is the daughter of Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej. An MBA from Harvard Business School, she has played a key role in revamping the company's existing portfolio. Nisa is also closely involved in the selection and development of top management, and has been instrumental in setting up a strategy cell for Godrej.
She is the brains behind Welspun Retail, India's largest specialised home textile chain, which has more than 150 stores across 110 cities. Under Goenka's leadership, Welspun acquired Britain's leading towel brand, Christy, and turned around the loss-making business. Now, Goenka, a psychology graduate, is busy expanding her company's rural footprint.
With demand for IT services back, Infosys plans to add another 40,000 employees this fiscal year. Given her proven track record, Gurjar would likely relish the challenge. After joining the company in 1999, she was instrumental in scaling up Infosys BPO as its business grew to $250 million. She has come a long way since then.
Archana Hingorani, CEO, IL&FS Investment Managers
Hingorani heads India's largest, and only, listed private equity company. IIML merged with Saffronart in July this year and the merger added another $400 million to its assets under management, taking the total figure to $3.2 billion. Hingorani, an MBA and PhD from the Katz Graduate School of Business, has been with the IL&FS Group for 13 years, and was involved with pioneering transactions in the infrastructure space.
Kamineni will likely head the Apollo Hospitals Group's wellness segment - surely, where the money is. Though Apollo has only one wellness centre at its Chennai hospital, it is expected to start more centres at Hyderabad and Lavasa, where it has a 200-acre land bank. Earlier, she had spearheaded the group's health insurance foray.
Lal will head a powerful combine of beverage giants with a brief to target health and wellness. Joining PepsiCo India in 2004, she helped devise the marketing strategy for its beverage brands across countries in the subcontinent. A St. Stephen's and IIM Calcutta alumnus, Lal began her career in advertising with Lintas.
Harris heads the marketing function across all four brands of the hotel chain. A former journalist, she began her career with the Taj Hotels in 1983 as a sales executive, but joined the marketing team five years back. Her role might become all the more crucial with more foreign players entering the Indian market.
Mitra takes care of the marketing initiatives of Titan and all its sub-brands, such as Raga and Nebula. She also manages the company's Swiss premium brand Xylys. From "what's your style" to the current "be more" tagline, Suparna has been instrumental in repositioning the Titan brand. A graduate from IIM Calcutta, Suparna started her career with Hindustan Lever.
Prior to joining Max New York Life in 2007, Motwani was Director, Marketing at General Motors, where she was honoured with the best marketing employee award for Asia Pacific. And within months of joining what she calls the sunrise industry, Motwani changed the slogan of Max New York Life to Karo Zyaada Ka Iraada. It clicked, and how.
Vibha Paul Rishi,Group Strategy & Consumer Director, Future Group
Ending her fast-track career at PepsiCo three years back, Vibha Paul Rishi started a fresh innings in March this year. Rishi, an alumnus of Delhi's FMS, spent 17 years in PepsiCo and was its marketing head in India before moving to the US in 2003. Prior to joining the Future Group, she was involved with education charity Pratham.
Sangeeta Pendurkar, Managing Director, Kellogg India
Her new role isn't an easy one. A leader in the market, Kellogg India has been facing competition from companies like PepsiCo, Marico and private label brands launched by big retailers. But her diverse experience with companies like HSBC Bank Middle East, Hindustan Unilever and Kimberly Clark should stand her in good stead.
Harvard Business School graduate Radhika Piramal took charge as the Managing Director in February this year, and hopes to impart a more youthful character to the brand. Ajay Piramal's VIP, the world's biggest luggage maker after Samsonite, has for long been sandwiched between the latter and the low-end unorganised sector. Piramal, who began her career with VIP in 2001 as a brand manager, is aiming at a multi-brand, multi-location strategy. This October, VIP terminated distribution of French luggage brand Delsey in a bid to focus on its own brands.
Piramal has played a key role in the overseas business of Piramal Healthcare. As General Manager, Strategic Marketing, she helped in the implementation of Operational Excellence Projects at the company's overseas locations in the UK and Canada. In September, US healthcare company Abbott Laboratories acquired Piramal Healthcare's domestic pharma business.
As COO of the company, she has been actively involved in developing and promotion of the two integrated business cities at Jaipur and Chennai. Designed on a work-live-learn-play format, the Chennai SEZ has already attracted around 50 corporate giants such as Infosys, Wipro and BMW. Prasad has experience in dealing with multiple external stakeholders, customers, suppliers and government agencies.
She built Radio City from scratch. Well, almost. The nowpopular brand had just four stations when Purohit joined in 2005, and the number is well over 20 today. Many have broken even, and most, like Radio City Bangalore, are leaders in their cities. Purohit, an IIM Bangalore graduate, has seen all sides of the table - from agency, to television, to radio. She was instrumental in setting up FCB-Ulka's media arm and has managed brands like Zee and Zoom.
Besides strengthening the Apollo Hospitals Group's position as an integrated healthcare provider network, Reddy is also involved in discussions with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad to explore partnerships in the Asean region. Suneeta is also chairperson of Aircel Cellular and on several companies' boards.
The youngest of the four daughters of Prathap C. Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals Group, Sangita looks after the operations of Asia's largest hospital network with over 8,000 beds across 50 hospitals. Under her direction, the group ventured into new areas such as Apollo Health Street (offshore service provider of low-cost management systems, offering back-office support to healthcare providers and payers) and Apollo Reach, a project to build a chain of super-specialty hospitals in semi-urban cities and rural towns.
Devita Saraf doesn't believe in resting on her laurels. While her father Raj Saraf founded the mass marketfocused PC brand Zenith, Devita came into her own by launching luxury brand, Vu Technologies. She also writes an online column for The Wall Street Journal and is FICCI's youngest Executive Committee member.
Tata's role involves running diverse businesses such as development of kids' entertainment (Cartoon Network, POGO, Galli Galli Sim Sim) and enhancing the English entertainment segment (Warner Bros). Tata had a 12-year stint at STAR India, before moving on to Turner India.
Deepika Warrier, Marketing Director, Beverages, PepsiCo India
When PepsiCo India rejigged its top management in July, Warrier was elevated to head the company's high-profile beverages portfolio, which includes brands such as Pepsi and Miranda. As Marketing Director, the IIM Bangalore alumnus launched snack brand Aliva last year and strengthened the position of Quaker Oats, Kurkure and Lay's.
Whether it was in her previous stint at Zee TV or now at Colors, Yardi seems to have her finger on the pulse of the Hindi-speaking audience. The results are for all to see. Within a few weeks of its launch in July 2008, Colors climbed to the top position in the Hindi general entertainment channel category, pushing comers to the background.
